The titles of two new books about Israel’s genocide in Gaza succinctly state their shared argument: Corporate, mainstream media have been complicit in the horrific violence the Zionist state has inflicted and continues to inflict on Palestinians in Gaza. Print and online media, as well as cable news, have sold the genocide to their readers and audiences, turning reality on its head by portraying the Israeli perpetrators as victims of bloodthirsty terrorists and their Palestinian victims as bloodthirsty terrorists, terrorist sympathizers, or terrorists-to-be. As Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Nissim Vaturi said in a televised 2025 interview, “any child” born in Gaza is “already a terrorist from the moment of his birth.”
Adam Johnson, a media analyst and co-host of the podcast Citations Needed, and Robin Andersen, professor emerita of media studies at New York’s Fordham University and contributor to various independent media, have meticulously documented how U.S. media enable Israel’s mass killings. Their reviews of print, online, and cable coverage illustrate how media have acted as virtual mouthpieces for Israel’s government and its military as well as for the U.S. State Department.